


Leslie Knope's Guide to Finding the Perfect Boyfriend

by thecomebackkidd



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Dating, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Friends to Lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:08:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27873558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecomebackkidd/pseuds/thecomebackkidd
Summary: Leslie Knope had accomplished a lot in high school. Student Council President. Valedictorian. Chair of the Pawnee Central Fundraising Committee. President and founder of over twenty different clubs. Summer Internship at the Parks Department. Perfect Attendance. Winner of the Pretty Blondes Who Like to Read Scholarship. She had accomplished more in four years than most people do in fifty.But she never had a boyfriend. Now, in the second semester of her freshman year of college, she was determined to find a plan to change that.
Relationships: Leslie Knope/Ben Wyatt
Comments: 5
Kudos: 13





	1. Leslie Knope's Perfect Boyfriend

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been reading SO much Ben and Leslie in college AU and this fluffy, trope-y idea got stuck in my brain and would not go away until I sat down and wrote this. I will definitely be working on Filling in the Blanks as well because I hate unfinished works. This should only be like 10 chapters or something and it will be probably very predictable but sometimes you need some fluff, especially during this winter season. So please enjoy! Kudos and comments are appericated!

Leslie Knope had accomplished a lot in high school. Student Council President. Valedictorian. Chair of the Pawnee Central Fundraising Committee. President and founder of over twenty different clubs. Summer Internship at the Parks Department. Perfect Attendance. Winner of the Pretty Blondes Who Like to Read Scholarship. She had accomplished more in four years than most people do in fifty. 

And she was proud of that, don’t get her wrong. Every trophy and certificate she had hanging at home in her bedroom felt a permanent reminder that she made the right choice focusing all of her energy in high school on accomplishing as much as possible. Every time she walked through the campus of IU, she felt like she had truly earned her scholarship with her endless hours of studying and essay writing. Every move she had made those four years seem to be the right one to get her to exactly where she needed to be. 

But there was one thing missing: at now nineteen years old, she had never had a boyfriend.

Sure, she had made out with Tim Greenberg in her biscuits making class in the tenth grade and went to prom with Harvey from the AV Club, but she had never had a hang out all the time, go on dates, kiss until the sunrise boyfriend. And it really didn’t bother her for a long time. 

She was independent and smart and driven so why did she need some guy to tell her what she already knew? Her first semester of college was spent hanging out with her roommate, the wonderful Ann Perkins, and bonding with the girls on her floor with dance parties and wine nights and she honestly didn’t even think about boys at all. But then, something weird happened the second semester. 

All of her friends got boyfriends.

It was as if the weird awkward sixth-grade middle school dance boy-girl divide that had happened during the first semester had disappeared over the winter break and every freshman came back to school feeling more comfortable with their new surroundings and was ready to couple up. 

At first, it didn’t really bother Leslie when April stopped coming to their Friday night movie nights to go see her new boyfriend Andy’s band play a gig or when Donna ditched their Monday afternoon gossip sessions to sit with a different guy each day or when Shauna would disappear for hours on end at parties when she met some guy who was inevitably cheating on his girlfriend with her. But then Ann met Chris.

They had a nutrition and fitness course together. Ann needed it for her nursing degree and Chris was taking it as an elective. They got partnered up on a “getting to know you” exercise, exchanged numbers and within days, they became each other’s shadows. Whenever Leslie asked Ann to hang out, she would sheepishly grin and explain that she had already made plans with Chris. 

Which is exactly what had happened this Friday night in late January. Leslie had asked Ann if she wanted to go with her to a movie night at the student center and Ann had apologized profusely as she explained that Chris had already invited her to go to this new vegan restaurant that night and since it was their third date, it was kind of a big deal. And Leslie understood. She wanted Ann to be happy and she seemed really happy with Chris.

But Leslie was lonely and sick of spending her alone Friday nights cuddled in bed with political biographies, Post-It notes and four dollar bottles of white wine. If she was going to do that, she wanted to at least have company. So she decided she was going to do something about it the best way she knew how, by creating a detailed plan and sticking to it until she saw results. She stayed up all night, planning and strategizing it while blasting Sarah McLaughlin music, so focused that she hadn’t even noticed the sun coming up and streaming through her crappy dorm room blinds.

“Uhm, hi,” a voice broke Leslie from her work around nine in the morning. She peaked up to see her perfect land mermaid of a roommate Ann standing in the doorway looking very confused and very very tired.

“Ann!” Leslie exclaimed with too much energy for someone who hadn’t slept at all, “I have to show you something.”

“Can it wait until after I take a nap, Les? I barely slept last night,” Ann replied, smiling softly to herself, as she crossed the room to climb into her bed.

“Please,” Leslie begged, climbing up on Ann’s bed without invitation, carrying the pink sparkly binder with her, “this is really important to me, Ann.”

“Okay, okay, let’s see what it is,” Ann said, taking the binder. 

“Leslie Knope’s Guide to Finding the Perfect Boyfriend,” Ann read the title aloud and looked at her with questioning eyes.

“I’m just so sick of being alone and I’ve never had a boyfriend so I needed to develop a plan to make sure that I do this right and not just find some stupid meathead to date,” Leslie explained as she opened the binder, “So this first page is the exact type of guy that I’m looking for and then the rest of it ideas and strategies to get him to fall in love with me.”

On the first page, in sparkly pink and red lettering (Leslie had taken several calligraphy classes at the rec center in high school), was the title: Leslie’s Perfect Boyfriend.

“Okay, let’s see,” Ann began, reading down the list, “Someone who makes you laugh, who gets along with your friends, who is just as smart as you, who buys you flowers or little things just to let you know he’s thinking of you, who understands politics, who you can count on, who makes you feel protected but not in a weird macho way, who is a good cuddler, who understands your goals and who cares about what you have to say.”

“Is it too much?” Leslie asked, suddenly feeling very self-conscious.

“I mean, it’s a lot to hope for from a college freshman boy but if anyone deserves a guy this awesome, it’s you.”

“So you’ll help me?” 

“Of course I will.”

Leslie took the binder from Ann and then remembered what had inspired its creation in the first place, “Okay, enough about me, how was the date with Chris?”

“Amazing,” Ann blushed, “Actually, this is kind of perfect. Chris invited me to this house party at his friend Tom’s house, said there was gonna be a lot of people there and he told me to bring you. Maybe you can meet someone there!”

Leslie flew off the bed and ran to her closet, “Oh my god Ann that’s perfect! I have to figure out what I’m going to wear, this is so incredible, I should totally wear a sexy hat or fingerless gloves, oh my god!”

Ann just laughed at her wonderfully dorky roommate and flopped back on her bed, accepting that she wouldn’t be getting any sleep until Leslie finished her fashion show.


	2. Someone Who Makes You Laugh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wrote two chapters the first night so ya'all get both now!

Chris’s friend Tom’s house was enormous, especially for a college freshman who lived off campus. Apparently, he shared the house with some guy named Jean-Ralphio, who’s dad was loaded. Jean-Ralphio had gone to IU the first semester but had been kicked out for missing too many classes but his dad didn’t want him home, so he stuck around, lived with Tom and threw crazy raging parties every single day. 

As Leslie and Ann entered the huge brick house, Leslie was feeling really anxious. Ann had helped her pick out a really cute outfit, black jeans, an off the shoulder red shirt and some red Converse, and curled her hair and done her makeup. She knew that she looked really good, but she was out here looking for the perfect boyfriend and that was enough to stress anyone out. 

Ann seemed to feel her tense up and grabbed her hand, squeezing it reassuringly, “Leslie, you look awesome, any guy would be lucky to talk to you. This is going to be great. Just talk to guys and have fun and don’t put too much pressure on yourself.”

Before Leslie could answer, a loud voice yelling, “Ann Perkins!” came rushing towards them. A very handsome, very athletic looking blue eyed man ran up and hugged Ann as if he hadn’t seen her in years. He kissed her lips passionately before turning to Leslie and sticking out a hand, “Chris Traeger.”

Leslie took his hand in hers and smiled, “Leslie Knope.”  


Chris pointed at her excitedly and repeated her name with an inflection that made Leslie wonder if he was drunk or just this happy all the time. Then he ushered them towards the kitchen to introduce them to the rest of his friends.

“Hey everyone! This is my lovely new girlfriend, Ann Perkins,” Chris said, making everyone in the kitchen turn to look at them, “and this is her wonderful roommate, Leslie Knope. Ann, Leslie, these are my friends, Tom, Jean-Ralphio, Andy, Mark,” he pointed to each guy as they nodded a hello to them, “and this is my roommate, Ben Wyatt.”

Leslie turned, eyes wide in the direction that Chris had pointed to last. Oh, she knew Ben Wyatt. He was a serious jerk.

They had had a Government class together last semester that dealt with concepts like government spending and budget management. It was a required course for both the Business and History majors which is how they ended up in class together and they had fought the whole semester. Every time Leslie offered a solution to their professor’s hypothetical budget crisis questions, Ben would butt in with a "more practical one" that would eliminate the budget for things like Parks or result in the firing of innocent people trying to do their jobs. And then there had been that one time the professor had Ben come up to the whiteboard to write out how he would distribute a fictional town’s budget and it was just so off base that Leslie had gotten up out of her seat, stolen the Expo marker from his hand and started writing out her own plan on the board. And instead of hearing her out, he had grabbed an eraser and started removing her brilliant ideas from the board until they got into a shouting match. Professor Smithson was not too happy with them after that one.

And now Ben Wyatt was standing in front of her, wearing the same smirk he had worn every time she fought him in class, holding a beer, “How are you doing, Knope?”

Leslie rolled her eyes, he had pretty much exclusively called her by her last name during their arguments and it pissed her off so much. Never in her life had her own name annoyed her so much. She didn’t even want to answer him and turned to talk to Ann or even Chris, but they had run off to go get Ann a drink, so she was alone. She sighed and looked back at him, “I’m doing good, Wyatt.”

“Taking any government classes this semester?” Ben asked, pulling a beer off the counter behind, popping off the top and offering it to her. 

She took it from him, desperately needing a drink to get through another second of this conversation, “Yeah, of course I am. You?”

“Nah,” Ben replied, sipping his beer, “I’m taking all accounting classes this semester.” 

“Oh great, so now you can learn more about how to financially destroy a town,” she replied coldly, taking a drink from her own beer.

She could’ve sworn she saw twinge of emotion cross Ben’s eyes, but he seemed to push it down as fast as it appeared and he sighed, pointing in the direction of Ann and Chris, who were now dancing in the living room behind them, “So I guess our roommates are kind of a thing now, huh?”

Okay, she was sick of the small talk. She had a perfect boyfriend to find and she wasn’t going to find it wasting her time talking to Ben, so she snapped, “Look Ben, I don’t really care if our roommates are dating, alright? I still think you’re an ass.”

Yeah that was kind of mean, he was just trying to make small talk with her, but Leslie was already on edge knowing that she needed to start carrying out her plan and he had been just such a jerk to her last semester. He just kind of nodded in response and backed off, “Okay…okay…”

As he left the kitchen, Leslie downed the rest of her drink and decided that it was time to get to work.

*

It was three hours into the party and so far, Leslie’s plan to find Mr. Right at this party was a total bust. As nice as it was for Chris to have invited Leslie to this party, his friends were definitely…a little out there. She had talked to Andy for a bit and discovered that he was actually the guy her friend April was dating when she came over and started kissing him in the middle of Leslie’s conversation. Tom was more interested in asking Leslie what type of “go go mobile” she owned (car…? She thinks) and when she told him she didn’t have one because she had taking an unpaid Parks department internship the past few summers, he downed a tequila shot and walked away without as much as a goodbye. Mark had seemed kind of nice but also kind of dull and when Leslie had mentioned that she wanted to go into government work one day, he rolled his eyes and told her that working private sector was where it was at and she politely excused herself from their conversation. 

In between talking to all of Chris’s friends, she and Ann had danced like crazy in the living room and downed several shots of various liquors, so Leslie was pretty hammered at this point and was seated on a couch that had been pushed up against the wall nursing a bottle of water to try and get the spinning of her to stop for a little bit. She was feeling pretty sorry for herself, watching Ann laugh as Chris told her some story with wild gesturing, seeing April and Andy making out in the corner and seeing other various couples talking around the house. For a brief second, probably because of the amount of alcohol she had consumed, she felt like her plan wasn’t going to work out. 

As she mentally began to think of how could adjust her expectations, the weight of the couch shifted, and she turned to see Ben taking a seat next to her. 

“Every other couch is occupied by people making out,” Ben defended before she could even say anything.

“It’s fine,” Leslie sighed, “I’m sorry for being so cold earlier. I still think you’re a jerk, but I was probably a little icier than I needed to be.”

“Ya think?” Ben replied sarcastically.

“I was just on edge earlier, I have a…project that I’m working on and it’s stressing me out.”

Ben nodded and took another of his drink, “What do you think they’re talking about?”

“Huh?”

“That couple over there,” Ben said, pointing across the room to an extremely pretty blonde girl in a short pink dress who was hanging on every word of an awkward, chubby looking guy in a sweater vest. Leslie recognized them from a few events around campus, her name was Gayle and his name was…Terry? Larry? Jerry! Yeah it was Jerry…she was pretty sure.

“I cannot even imagine what they would have in common to talk about,” Leslie replied.

“He’s got to be telling her that he has the secret to eternal youth or the cure to world hunger the way she’s hanging on his words.”

Leslie smiled, “Maybe she lost some sort of bet.”

“Not with the way she’s staring at him.”

And as if on cue, Gayle leaned forward and started kissing Jerry with an intense passion that Leslie would never be able to unsee. 

“Oh good lord,” Ben exclaimed next to her.

“I’m going to need to wash my eyes out with holy water.”

Ben laughed and bumped her shoulder with his, “I’ll be right there with you.”

They watched them for a few more seconds as if it was a car crash they couldn’t look away from until Gayle grabbed Jerry’s hand and led him towards the stairs. 

“Okay, he has to have hypnotized her or something. Like if I shouted ‘banana’ right now, she would just start screaming and run away. Maybe she thinks Jerry is a friendly hat or something.” Ben mused, clearly in deep thought about how this was possibly happening.

Leslie cackled at this, the seriousness in his face and thought process just hitting her and making her laugh until tears were pooling up in her eyes. Ben joined on soon as they fell over each other, laughing about what they had just witnessed. It was the hardest Leslie had laughed all night. Not that she would ever tell anyone that unless she was under oath. 


End file.
